Dolmens history of origin. N. Koltova

Dolmen - (Celtic) "tol" - table, "men" - stone. those. "Stone Table". They belong to the culture of "megaliths" - (from the Greek) "huge stones". The bearers of this amazing culture have not been precisely identified, but the monuments left by them are truly grandiose. The European name is not casual, dolmens are quite widespread. An interesting sequence of their distribution can be traced. Early dolmens are found on west coast The Black Sea, then the band of their distribution extends to Asia Minor, then the Middle East.

Palestine - North Africa - Spain - Portugal - France - Holland - northern Germany - along the Danube to the Balkans - Western coast of the Black Sea. Thus, a closed loop is traced. Apparently, the carriers of the "Dolmen" culture migrated along this route. True, there are separate dolmens in Central Africa, India, and even Japan. Still, the most interesting for researchers were the dolmens of the Northwestern Caucasus. The name Stone table was not given for nothing - the presence of a massive lid, which crowns almost every dolmen, makes it look like a table. Almost all Caucasian dolmens are individual, although for decades archaeologists have not abandoned their attempts to find a certain mathematical regularity of their structure. But in the words of the famous Soviet archaeologist Markovin, a researcher of dolmens who devoted several decades of his life to them, this idea of systematizing these stone monuments “art for the sake of art” is like medieval scholasticism. It is unlikely that the ancient builders suspected of some mathematical laws, under which their researchers tried to bring the dolmens. Rather, it is important to understand what their creators tried to show by building the dolmens.

Scientific research of the Caucasian dolmens begins at the end of the 17th century, when the famous Russian naturalist and geographer Pallas first made detailed descriptions these buildings, found by him on the Taman Peninsula. True, he somewhat belittled their age. Pallas discovered in one of the dolmens several objects of a later time than the burial structures themselves. Therefore, he dated them to the time of Greek colonization. Later, such scientists as Tebu de Marigny, Frederic Dubois de Montpere, Felitsyn, Veselovsky, etc. were engaged in the study of dolmens. From the middle of the twentieth century, archaeologists Teshev, Kondryakov, Autlev, Markovin were engaged in this problem. Thanks to their work, many issues related to dolmens have now been disclosed.
The zone of distribution of the Caucasian dolmens extends from the Taman Peninsula to Abkhazia in a length of 480 km. Its width varies from 30 to 75 km. Dolmens are not haphazardly located, usually they can be found along river basins and near passes. The map of the distribution of dolmens, when combined with the map of the strike of the main rocks, showed that these buildings were always located where there was material convenient for their construction. In total, according to archaeologists, there are about 2500 dolmens in the Kuban. Local buildings, in spite of their certain similarity with European dolmens, have their own peculiarities, for example, almost all Caucasian dolmens have a hole made on the front side, usually of a round shape, the diameter of which ranges from 37 to 43 cm. Apparently, Caucasian dolmens are later than European ones. and this can be traced to their more correct form. According to Jessen, they date back to about 2500 BC. AD the period of dolmen construction lasted for about 900 years, after which the traces of their builders disappear.
The nature of the finds made in dolmens allows us to draw two conclusions - they were burial structures since In intact dolmens, the remains of human burials (usually bones sprinkled with red ocher) and items of burial implements were found. - the second conclusion is that these are undoubtedly religious buildings, as evidenced by their monumentality, astronomical orientation (some researchers conclude that the holes of the dolmens are directed to the place of sunset on certain days).
Despite the fact that Vladimir Ivanovich Markovin rejected attempts at mathematical systematization, he himself and his colleague Pshemaf Ulagaevich Autlev systematized dolmens into five main groups.

1. Tiled - the most widespread type of dolmens, about 90% of the total known. The name comes from the form, and the principle of construction. It was built of five massive stone slabs (hence the name), Four slabs made up the walls, the fifth - the ceiling. It has the shape of a truncated pyramid, the thickness of the walls is from 30 to 60 cm. With great care, V. I. Markovin, after thorough measurements, deduced the proportion of the ratio of the frontal, rear and equal side plates. It turned out that the builders of dolmens had a certain architectural module, i.e. unit of measurement, by which the entire structure was repaired. This module is equal to 1/10 of the front plate. The overall proportion of most of the tiled dolmens was 10 x 12 x 8 (the ratio of the front, side, and rear sides, respectively, of the inner chamber of the dolmen).

The slabs are massive, hewn and are not inferior in thickness to modern artificial panels. We must not forget that there were no cranes and tractors in the era of the construction of ancient structures.
Dolmens in the full sense of the word are the work of human hands. Historians unanimously view them as oldest monuments architecture. It is with the description of megaliths that almost all educational courses in the history of architecture begin, because in works of architecture solutions of practically necessary utilitarian problems are inextricably combined with purely artistic creativity. Each epoch corresponds to its own architecture, the images of which actively influence the consciousness of a person's feelings. It should be added that architecture is not only a construction business or a purely artistic creation; it is a synthesis of both.
The famous art critic Mikhail Vladimirovich. Alpatov, studying ancient megalithic monuments as architectural structures, wrote: "One can imagine with what sense of dignity and creative satisfaction people looked at these monuments, who by their efforts were defeating the physical resistance of the stone." When building a dolmen, a person, in his words, “limits space by piling up material; for the first time, the bearing and resting parts are clearly opposed here; this opposition became the basis of architecture "From the inner space of the dolmen" the internal interior should have developed "-" In dolmens, the beginning of order is manifested, first of all, rhythm, the beginning of which in one form or another became the basis of the artistic language of architecture. " To these qualities can be added proportionality and scale, for they create a feeling of strength and grandeur. As a rule, the materials for the construction of dolmens were sandstones and quartzites. And the softer the stone was, the more regular shape the dolmens themselves and the slabs that made them up had. Archaeologists have reliably restored the technology for the construction of these tombs. First, a massive block of approximately suitable thickness was split off from the formation. A thin groove about 1 cm deep was knocked out along the contour of the future slab.After 20-30 cm, along the perimeter of the future slab (along the groove), through holes were drilled into which wooden wedges were tightly driven. After that, the gutter was poured with water, and after a while the tree swelled and the stone cracked. The result was a blank for the future dolmen slab.

archaeologists also found unused blanks for future slabs, and the tools with which these slabs were processed. A hole was punched in the front plate. After careful cutting and fitting, the slabs were transported to the assembly site (sometimes several kilometers away, given the mountainous and wooded area). The transportation took place apparently with the help of both human traction and the traction of oxen. The slabs were transported on log-rollers, alternately placing them under the movable slab (the famous Grom-Stone was transported in a similar way, for the monument to Peter in St. Petersburg). The place for the construction was not chosen by chance, not far from the water (usually along the banks of rivers), and on a hill, or on the slopes of mountains (usually, these are places where the sunset is clearly visible). A powerful stone foundation was laid out from two or three large stones, less often from one. For slab dolmens, grooves were knocked out at the joints of the slabs and their installation began. First, the front and rear plates were installed using props, and then side plates were attached to them from the sides. The joints were so tightly fitted that you cannot even push a sheet of paper through the surviving dolmens. Sometimes a temple was built around the dolmen, most likely intended for ritual sacrifices. After that, an earthen embankment was made on one of the sides of the building, and the top cover plate was rolled over it. The hole was closed with a mushroom-shaped stone plug. Based on the fact that the dolmen usually weighs several tons, according to the calculations of archaeologists, about 50 - 70 people took part in its construction. The dolmen did not immediately become a tomb. There are dolmens in which there have never been burials, this fact suggests that most likely the dolmen was not built for a specific person, but burial in it was carried out after a certain period, after its construction. All tiled dolmens have a “portal” ie. protrude 30-40 cm beyond the junction of the front and side plates. Some scientists associate the presence of the portal with the fact that the dolmen personified the transition to the other world. And the portal could thus represent the gate. Whether it is true or not, some dolmens have such a massive portal that they had to make additional supports for it. All dolmen slabs were trapezoidal in plan, but in general the slab dolmen has the shape of a truncated pyramid, which ensures the overall strength of the structure.

Thus, the building expands towards the base and towards the "portal".

2. The next type of dolmens - systematized by Markovin - is a composite dolmen, which is built not from five huge slabs, but from a larger number of smaller stones. Analysis of the study of these buildings showed that at first it was a necessary measure, since large stones might not be enough and they were replaced with smaller parts.
Dolmens were found with three monoliths at the base and one of the walls made of several stone blocks. Later, a composite dolmen becomes an end in itself for its builders, and due to the greater plasticity of the architecture of these buildings, dolmens of the most unusual shape begin to appear.
Even round in plan, although it should be noted that compound dolmens are relatively rare. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, due to their design features, they are less durable and less resistant to the elements and human barbarism. Secondly, due to the greater complexity of the technology, they were built less.

3. No less interest was aroused by the so-called. “Trough” dolmens are the third type of dolmens identified by V.I. Markovin. In the very name of their clue, their features.
A dolmen chamber was carved into a large stone block, and the outer part of the stone was bounded. A hole was punched in the front plate. Then a cover was mounted on the resulting "trough". These dolmens are also rare due to the more complex construction technology.

4. Monolithic dolmens, which are much smaller than all the others, are even less common for “trough” and “composite” ones. The name itself speaks of their structure - they are hollowed out in a large block. At the same time, a "portal" is necessarily imitated, which speaks of their later origin than tiled dolmens. They are extremely rare.

5. And finally, the fifth group includes “false portal” dolmens. Their name comes from a strange design feature. If in all dolmens with a portal the hole is located on the vertical axis of symmetry, then in the "pseudo-portal" dolmens the hole is either absent altogether, or is located in the rear or side slabs. What explains this feature of their construction, scientists have not yet undertaken to answer reliably. There are also very few of these dolmens, one might say very few. The closest to Anapa is located in the valley of the river. Janet.

The finds of the primary objects put in the dolmens by their builders help archaeologists to answer some historical questions regarding the carriers of this material culture. For example, the fact that, despite the later period of the existence of the dolmen culture. Pottery and metallurgical production was at a level lower than that of the bearers of the "Maikop" culture. Also, archaeologists have not been able to find the remains of the settlements of the builders of dolmens, which is still unclear. Apparently, this bygone civilization embodied all its achievements in these grandiose structures, paying less attention to the everyday side of life. To this day, dolmens, their history, despite the enormous interest in them from both science and ordinary people, remain the greatest mystery of mankind.

What do historians say about dolmens? With this question, we turned to the most ancient history, captured in the sailings of ancient Greek sailors. And this is what we dug up in them.
Long ago, the land in these places was covered with thick fogs. High, bare rocks interspersed with deep crevices. Clouds of smoke and gas burst from the depths of the underground. The earth breathed. At the foot of the cliffs, waves of a deep salt lake splashed.
Small, evil pygmies came here from the cold valley in search of warmth. During the day they climbed high mountains, and at night climbed into deep caves. It was warm underground there, and most importantly, hot golden rivers flowed. In molten gold, bird eggs could be boiled and fed.
Life in the underground retarded the development of this people. They were small, black, cruel and very bloodthirsty. This people had a hard life. Once they saw white giants. They were kind and hardworking creatures. They were constantly building something. They looked at the little pygmies, how they shivered from the cold into the cold, how the hot sun scorched them and took pity on them. The giants built huge stone houses and allowed the dwarfs to live in them. The houses were so big that the dwarfs couldn't even get into them. Then the giants taught the dwarfs to tame hares. The dwarfs sat on hares and forced them to jump into the houses through a small hole.
This is the only information about dolmens that comes from time immemorial. They let a magical fog over the strange structures, through which it is almost impossible to discern neither time, much less the builders themselves. Who were these mysterious giants - the builders of dolmens?
Gradually, the lake rose and turned into a huge sea. It connected with the Mediterranean Bosporus strait. The highly developed civilization of the ancient Greeks rushed in search of new lands.
For a long time, the ships of the Argonauts, the first navigators, crashed on the wandering rocks of Plankta, which were located at the exit from the Bosporus to the Black Sea. Once a wise captain took a soothsayer named Phineus on his ship. He sent a pigeon ahead of the ship. The bird flew between the rocks. They dispersed, stopped in place and never closed again.
Since then, the history of the Black Sea coast began to be written. “A lost place, completely covered with fogs. There are huge black birds - griffins, capable of pecking at a person; Amazon women killing any man who steps ashore; barbarian tribes live in the rocks. They sacrifice any newcomer to their gods or eat them, and the skulls serve as cups for them, ”- this is how the civilized Greeks described the Black Sea coast. “A place near the underworld,” they said.

However, despite all the difficulties, ancient researchers found that in those places where the high cliffs had not yet been covered with vegetation, one could see frozen rivers of real gold right in the crevices. The gold rush filled the sails of the desperate Greeks. The Odyssey describes the extraordinary dangers that accompany seafarers. Cyclops, sorcerers, sea passions - all this was here, on the shores of the Black, inhospitable sea.
Had to fight local tribes- the pygmies who desperately defended their possessions. After all, the golden rivers are the only source of heat in a deep underground, it was the source of their life. The Greeks called the Pygmies "Guardians of Gold".
The territory from Sochi to Novorossiysk was not conquered for a long time. It was an ominous place, it carried only death and misfortune.
Gradually the rocks were covered with sand, earth and vegetation. The rivers of gold have cooled down. And the pygmies went into oblivion. Maybe they live somewhere deep underground and guard their wealth, or maybe they have learned to survive on the surface of the earth. Greek written sources say that for a long time wild tribes of barbarians lived here, first cannibals, then sea pirates and later slavers. They worshiped their gods by sacrificing people. Highly developed peoples did not like these places.
Hordes of Scythians wandered past, entered into battles with barbarians, but no one managed to penetrate into the terrible, hermitic world of savages.
The bloodthirsty spirit of the most ancient tribes disappeared, scattered across the earth and left behind strange monuments.
Not a single ancient Greek written source replete with fantastic details about Cherno sea coast, does not talk about dolmens. As if before and during the Greek colonization there were no stone structures here.

Scientists believe that the construction of dolmens took place in the era from 2400 to 1300 BC. NS. in the Bronze Age. In those days, the Zig, Achaean, and Geniokh peoples emerged. These warlike tribes, following their more ancient ancestors, were engaged in piracy. They captured people and turned them into slaves. Later, the geniochs became slave traders. On the seaside Tuapse for a long time there was one of the largest slave markets. In the 4th century BC. NS. one of the kings of the Bosporus, Eumenes, entered the war with the Geniochs and cleared the sea of pirates.
The very name "dolmen" comes from the Celtic words tol - table, men - stone: stone table. In North European countries, with massive floors, they resemble huge tables. By the middle of the 19th century, in scholarly works, the word "dolmen" was assigned to the ancient buildings of the Western Caucasus, while the local population still continues to call them differently. Among the Adyghe and Abkhazians they are “ispun” and “spyun” (houses of dwarfs, caves), among Mingrelians - “keunezh” (houses of giants), the Cossack population calls them “heroic huts”.

The moment of discovery and the first mention of dolmens in scientific sources belong to the academician (of the Imperial Academy of Sciences) Peter Simon Pallas... Having seen dolmens for the first time, he compared these structures with tombs, while not thinking about their true purpose. This was in 1794.
Traveling along the Taman Peninsula, at dusk he saw stone structures that outwardly resemble tombs and described them. Other studies were done in 1818 by Tebu de Marigny in the Pshada River area. Pshad dolmens were also described by James bell... After these studies, all sorts of speculations and theories were born.
Interest in dolmens increased every year. These shrines seem to fascinate a person, and their extraordinary form makes you constantly unravel the mysterious belonging.

The systematization of the Caucasus dolmens was carried out L. I. Lavrov... In his work, 1139 buildings are indicated (1960).
From 1967 to 1976, the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR created a special detachment for the study of dolmens under the leadership of Vladimir Ivanovich Markovin. A huge number of buildings were explored. There are 2,308 dolmens in carefully documented documents. Markovin shares his impressions “... when dolmens began to line up before my eyes not as light houses of cards, but as massive masonry of slabs and stones, towering over my personal dimensions, then even at night, alone with my thoughts, I could not move away from the impression of their stunning grandeur. Their silent combination with huge trees and majestic mountain ranges seemed eerie.
No traces have been found showing the prehistory of the origin, development and complication of the structural features of the megaliths. Dolmens remain one of the most mysterious types of archaeological sites, according to scientists. The huge range of their distribution in time and space makes it difficult to recreate a complete picture.

On this moment the hypothesis that dolmens are ancient Adyghe burials were rejected, otherwise they would not exist, for example, in India. The theory of burial tombs for leaders or priests has undergone serious criticism, since it has not been found in sufficient material evidence.
We have to believe that the principle and form of dolmens were given by someone once and for all. There are dolmens in some places around the world. They maintain basic aspect ratios, despite the fact that they are located very far from each other.
It was suggested that dolmens were built in the 2nd - 3rd millennia BC. NS. in the Bronze Age as tombs for noble and important people. However, there was not enough evidence that the dolmens were actually stone burials. In some dolmens, skeletons of people were found, but they were either in a sitting or in a crooked position. This suggests that people could hide in the dolmen from serious danger and suddenly die. In others, dismembered and neatly arranged human bones were found. Perhaps they were carefully laid by surviving tribesmen after a massacre or an epidemic of disease.
After the establishment of the Center, a group of our researchers collected a considerable material of personal intuitive research and evidence. local residents who have experienced the impact of dolmens.
Very curious conclusions were made, confirming the initial presence of serious scientific and technical knowledge among the builders of dolmens.
Dolmens capture waves, vibrations of the atmosphere, amplify them and spread them into the surrounding space in such a way that the human brain is able to distinguish the information sent. Well versed in the technical intricacies of stone devices, the ancient people used dolmens for various purposes. For example, placing a dolmen with a hole on a valley, river or just a body of water, they made it affect the enemy's psyche, caused mortal horror, anxiety and a desire to move away from a strange place as quickly as possible. Such an arrangement of dolmens is just as dangerous now.
Ukrainian scientists have done very serious research on dolmens Furdui and Shvaidak... It is known that dolmens were built exclusively from quartz-bearing and granite-bearing rocks (granitoids, sandstones). Quartz SiO2 generates an electric current and maintains a constant vibration (frequency stabilization). This property is used in radio engineering. Under the influence of an electric current, quartz crystals generate ultrasound. With mechanical deformation, quartz is capable of generating radio waves.
There are large, medium and smaller dolmens. The resonant frequency of such chambers is 23, 16 and 35 Hz.
Such frequencies are located at the lower threshold of human hearing, adjacent to the infrasonic range. Such acoustic vibrations are detrimental. For example, ultrasound from 15 to 40 Hz produces the sensation of “gouging” in the skin. And a powerful ultrasonic beam on the brain of animals causes physical oppression, turns off the irradiated areas of the brain.
The impact on the human brain of low-frequency vibrations with a frequency of 13 - 25 Hz leads to the resonance of various internal organs. Exposure with a frequency of 25 Hz for 30 minutes causes an epileptic seizure.
The resonance frequency of most Caucasian dolmens is close to this value. It is also known that the effect of low-frequency vibrations close to the natural frequencies of human organs, in particular the heart (6 - 12 Hz), can be harmful and even fatal.

It is assumed that dolmens were once a multifunctional instrument. They not only generated ultrasound, but also emitted it directed in the form of a beam (searchlight effect), as evidenced by the design features of the dolmens. They are a bell that widens from the back to the front. An important structural element of dolmens is a hole in their front wall - a "hole". It is located on the center line of the front wall at a certain height from the floor. The hole diameter is usually 40 cm.
The holes in the dolmens were closed with special stone plugs - plugs. Their shape is similar to the ultrasonic emitters used in modern technology to focus the ultrasonic flow.
Dolmen set in some strategically important place(gorge, pass) as a combat installation and "launched" at the right frequency at the right moment did not allow the enemies to pass, causing them the feeling of "drilling gimbals", or even loss of consciousness and death.

In France, women specially spent nights at the megaliths in order to recover from infertility, to beg for a happy marriage and so on. On the back wall of one of the French dolmens, there is a relief in the form of a stylized human figure, consisting of parallel lines. Some of these lines resemble human acupuncture lines known to acupuncture specialists. But most of the lines go far beyond the contours of the human body and rather resemble the lines of his aura. The heart and the lower part of the spine, that is, the energetically most important organs, are especially highlighted on the relief. The drawing is applied upside down.
Dolmens were used for psychogenic effects on humans. By tuning the dolmen to a certain frequency, it was possible to achieve that the person (priest) entered a special state of trance and began to utter prophecies, just as the ancient Greek oracles or Eskimo shamans did.
It is believed that dolmens were used for technological purposes, for example, for ultrasonic welding of jewelry, in particular, Celtic and Scythian jewelry, made, as experts suspect, using a completely incomprehensible technology for attaching small parts to a base, reminiscent of high-frequency or ultrasonic welding.
The West Caucasian dolmens, as suggested by Furdui and Shvaydak, were established in seismically hazardous areas, along zones of active geological faults. As we already know, these scientists were almost at the truth, they approached the innermost secret of the dolmens and went further, revealing another important function of them - signaling devices of the approaching earthquake. It is known that before a strong earthquake, stresses increase in rock blocks, and small tremors occur. The dolmen could catch this sound and began to "hum", warning the priest and the population about the upcoming events.
Studies have shown that dolmens North Caucasus in the bulk they adversely affect humans. Their vibrations have a destructive effect on the psyche and the body, therefore, it is necessary to communicate with them with extreme caution.
Dolmens were built all over the world: from Japan to the Iberian Peninsula, from India to the Caucasus and from North Africa to the northern regions of Western Europe. Similar monuments are known in South America- Peru, Bolivia. In Western Europe - in England, France, Germany. On islands Mediterranean Sea- Corsica, Sardinia, Balearic Islands, Malta and Mallorca. They are found in England (the famous Stonehenge), in France, in Germany, in Spain, even in Africa. The shape of the dolmens is different. These are simple high-standing stones, pointed upwards in the form of a pencil (menhirs), and two high-standing stones with a crossbar on top.
On the small Pacific island of Malekula, part of the New Hebrides archipelago, a few decades ago, local residents erected dolmens and menhirs, reminiscent of those that were built around the world thousands of years ago. These dolmens were shrines for all the islanders. It was believed that the leader of a secret religious union on the island on certain days listened here to the voice of the spirit of the great ancestors and asked him for advice. At certain times of the day, the stone megalith emits a strong ultrasonic sound, hammering the squeak of bats.
Before sunrise, the stone monument emits ultrasound pulses, which subside soon after sunrise. Ultrasonic radiation is most intense and lasting during the equinoxes, and minimally during the solstices. The individual stones that make up the structure have different sounding cycles.

Dolmens are one of the most amazing mysteries of the planet. Huge stone structures of impeccable geometric shape, built thousands of years ago - who created them and why? Why did the ancient people need to make tremendous efforts for cutting, the most complicated transportation, processing of the strongest blocks and their incredibly accurate installation in a strict order? There is no answer to these questions yet.

Dolmens are called ancient megalithic (from the Greek. "Mega" - huge, "cast" - stone) structures of a certain shape. In the simplest version, these are three stones, placed in the shape of the letter P. The origin of the word "dolmen" is associated with a historical delusion: the French archaeologist Voden, who did not know the true age of the structures, attributed them to the Celts (in the Celtic dialect "dol" means table, "tep" - stone). In fact, dolmens are much older: from 8000 BC. in India before 1400 BC in the Caucasus. Although the dating is inaccurate, and scientists suggest that the buildings may be even older. Megrelians called dolmens “odzvale”, “sadzvale” (containers of bones), as well as “mdishkude” (houses of giants), Abkhazians called “adamra” (ancient burial houses). Dolmens can be seen in England, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Africa and even in India and Korea; there are many well-preserved dolmens in Russia and the North Caucasus.

The Adyghe people used the word "ispun" ("ispun", "spyun") for their designation, which means "house of a dwarf". According to legend, in ancient times, tribes of dwarfs and giants lived in the mountains. Small and weak dwarfs were not able to build their own dwellings to shelter from the weather. The giants, looking at how hard life is for them, took pity on their tiny neighbors. Each giant easily broke a stone slab in the mountains and, carrying it on his shoulders, carried it to the place of construction. Instead of doors, a rectangular or arch-shaped hole was punched into the faceplate. Through them, the dwarfs allegedly entered the "house" riding hares.

This is just one of many legends regarding the origin and construction of dolmens. What was the real way of their construction and purpose - scientists can only guess.

Burials were found in many dolmens: ancient bones, household items, arrowheads, amber beads, flint axes, shards of pottery. All these finds belong to different historical eras, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, therefore it is difficult to determine the exact period of the dolmens' origin. But the version about their use for ritual purposes has found many supporters. In her favor is the fact that sometimes the builders imitated the entrance using fake plugs, while the real one was on the other side. This is very much like trying to protect the graves from desecration. And if this is so, then it is quite understandable why the entrances are oriented to the cardinal points - this is how ancient people performed religious rituals associated with the cult of the dead. However, many modern researchers say that they began to arrange burials in dolmens much later, when the original purpose of the mysterious structures had already been forgotten.

Sometimes on the roofs of dolmens there are round platforms with bumpers along the edges, casting a shadow in clear weather. It is possible that in this way the priests observed the Sun and compiled the calendar. Or maybe these heavy stone buildings served as a kind of symbol of the power of the people, such as temples or tombs?

There are many assumptions about how the dolmen builders moved the stone masses. Some researchers are convinced that dolmens were collected from erratic boulders carried by glaciers over considerable distances. The builders rolled natural boulders on wooden rollers using leather belts, and to install the top slab they made a mound of sand and clay. Perhaps a certain number of dolmens could have been collected in this way. But it is very doubtful that the last ice age left our ancestors hundreds of thousands of identical 2x3 meter plates. Most likely, the builders mined the material in the quarries. According to the researcher Yu.N. Voronov, “the slabs were broken out with the help of wooden pegs driven into holes hollowed out along the contour. The pegs were poured with water: swelling, they broke off slabs of the required size. " Despite the popularity of this version, it remains unclear where the traces of holes and chips, which should have remained from the work, have gone.

Trying to solve this riddle, scientists set up an experiment to build a dolmen. The experiment showed that for the construction stone structure not so many people were required, and the ability to use the simplest tools was also required. But then why weren't other buildings erected in this way? Why were dolmens needed in such quantities?

The experimenters themselves believe that everything is rather trivial: dolmens were used to store food and weapons. Unfortunately, this hypothesis is weak - the dolmens are located too far from the supposed settlement sites. But every year scientists receive more and more reliable information that will one day allow them to solve the riddle of the Dolmens.

Stonehenge.

Egyptian pyramids.

Myths and Reality.

Appearance and purpose.

Design differences.

The material used.

Dolmen builders.

Ornaments and paints.

Finds in dolmens.

Dolmens

Within the territory of Cr Asnodar region scattered thousands of monuments, which, in terms of historical and cultural significance, are on a par with the famous Stonehenge and are the same age Egyptian pyramids.

it dolmens... For 200 years, historians and archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists have been fighting over the mystery of the origin of dolmens, trying to penetrate the dense "curtain" of millennia to plunge into the everyday life of those distant times. There are many obstacles on the way of their research, the main one of which is time.

Gradually, thanks to the scrupulous work of scientists, the darkness of the past dissipates, opening an amazing period of world history. In the same way as bit by bit archaeologists extract ancient artifacts from the earth, the daily life of ancient builders, their technical capabilities and scientific knowledge, beliefs and customs are revealed step by step.

Dolmen s. Pshada.

Dolmen myths and the history of their study

Dolmen of Mount Nexis.

Scientific name "Dolmens" Caucasian monuments have been received since their discovery (at the beginning of the 18th century). Since then, it has been entrenched in the scientific literature. The first who paid attention to these structures were foreigners, more precisely, European travelers, who happened to be on Caucasus , namely in the area Gelendzhik ... V 1818 year French, Tetbu de Marigny explored a group of dolmens on river Pshada ... A decade later, they were described in his diary by an English ethnographer (also a spy, a resident of British intelligence) James bell ... In the 30s of the XIX century, our dolmens attracted the attention of a Swiss, Dubois de Montpere , who published his studies in the middle of the century, thus opening the Caucasian monuments for European science and determining their place among megaliths Europe. V Of Russia they begin to be studied much later only in the 70s of the XIX century.

Around these ancient structures, a wide variety of fictions and legends have been bred for a long time. For example, according to the legends of the local population (Circassians) , once lived here giants sledges and dwarfs , weak and helpless. Out of pity for this stunted people, sled they erected houses impregnable, like fortresses, from huge stone slabs, leaving in their front part only a small passage in the form of a hole through which only a very small person could pass. That's why Circassians and called them "Sssypp-una" , that is "Dwarf houses" ... Having moved to Kuban Cossacks , shocked by the monumental buildings, considered that only the heroes could create them, and accordingly gave them the name "Heroic huts" ... All these legends originated several centuries ago. The XX century brought even more fantastic speculations about the origin, age and purpose of dolmens. An excess of enthusiasm, mixed with mysticism and superstition, gave rise to the most incredible assumptions about dolmens as an ultrasonic weapon of the ancients, platforms for taking off and landing UFOs or primitive computers created hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Time of occurrence and destination

In fact, the first megalithic monuments appear at the end of the 6th century. BC. (about 7.5 thousand years ago). First of all, they began to be built in France ... Here on Western Caucasus , the first dolmens were erected at the end of the 4th century BC. It is about 3 400 BC. (plus or minus 50-70 years). Since that time, in for almost 2 thousand years on the slopes and saddles of mountains, in the river valleys "grew" amazing tombs, reliably guarding the ashes of the ancient inhabitants of these places.

No matter how romantic and attractive the myths that have developed around these grandiose buildings are, the research of scientists gives us an absolutely clear answer to the question of the functions and purpose of these monuments. First of all, dolmens served as tombs. However, due to the religious beliefs of those distant times, they were also used as religious buildings.

Dolmen s. Pshada.

Dolmen r. Pshada.

Dolmen of the river valley Janet.

Dolmen s. Pshada.

Design features

Dolmen of the river valley Janet.

Dolmen of Mount Nexis.

Sometimes in the twilight of the Caucasian mountain forests, one can see lonely standing monuments, more often small dolmen groups , but there are necropolis consisting of several hundred tombs. Despite the external similarity, as if the architects made copies from one sample, they have many options: made up of huge slabs, round, half or entirely hollowed out in a piece of rock, with walls made of small blocks, etc.

To make the building more durable, the side plates were propped up raw stone blocks (buttresses) , and on top of the entire structure an embankment was made, which left only the front slab open, with a hole closed stone plug .

Before the dolmen paved area (courtyard) , rectangular, square or round, sometimes fenced off by walls of small blocks. Some tombs have a yard of hundreds of meters. Often the dolmen was surrounded by cromlech (a ring of stones around the entire structure). Its function is simple - to keep the embankment and yard from collapsing. Everything slabs and blocks of dolmens were individually adjusted and fastened together with grooves ... But perhaps the most surprising thing is that some buildings have the most real, storm drainage ... Thus, the ancient builders foresaw everything to protect their creations from the negative effects of natural elements.

Construction Materials

Material for construction was taken in quarries , located, as a rule, somewhere nearby. Distances were not such a big deal for Bronze Age builders.. In practice, it turned out that blocks in the range of 20-30 tons are amenable to human strength: handling and moving ... In fact, the most difficult thing is not to transport, but chipping off a slab or block of the desired size ... For this, a very simple one was used, but effective method... Shallow oval notches were made on the workpiece. Then they took bronze tape 2 times longer than the depth of the notches, bent in half and placed with a fold in the hole and carefully hammered a wooden or metal wedge between the walls (strips) of the tape alternately in each of the notches ... Gradually, the stone cracked exactly along the line marked by the notches. And thus, blocks of the required size were obtained.

Construction process

Blanks for blocks and wood drag transported to the site of future construction. Here the stone underwent final processing. We did it with bronze and stone tools ... If you look closely, you can see traces of the work of ancient craftsmen on the surface of the carefully hewn slabs. Long, narrow notches abandoned bronze instrument , a "Pockmarks" (round) stone (with a sledgehammer or stone chipper).

The process of collecting the dolmen was laborious. First, the side walls were laid and installed, then embankment , which left only the facade open, and along this embankment with the help of levers, ropes and pulling force of the bulls on the logs were pulled in and the overlap was installed ... After that, all other details were completed. All this dry masonry , without using any bonding solution, and all cavities were filled with fine gravel .

During construction we used measures of length , such as elbow, Palm etc., as well as building module that he served, most likely, hole diameter in the front wall. As surprising as it may seem, dolmen builders not only that were familiar with real temple or cult burial architecture , but also had rather deep mathematical knowledge ... Indeed, to create such a structure, complex mathematical calculations are required, especially for round dolmens ... They are composed of small blocks arranged in several tiers, tapering from the base and forming, as it were, a semblance false vault ... Each block in such a building is segment of a circle . The length of these segments and it was necessary to calculate , so that in the end, when assembling, it turned out exactly what was intended. And, involuntarily, the thought arises whether we have the right to consider ancient peoples primitive, standing at a lower stage of development than you and me.

Dolmen of the river valley Pshada.

Dolmen builders. Who are they?

For a long time, there have been endless discussions and controversies on this score. Some scientists believe that the tradition of erecting such tombs was brought by settlers from Asia Minor , others tend to think that this idea came from countries Mediterranean , still others believe that it is indigenous people of these places ... AND the latter theory is the most convincing ... Judging by the remains found, they were people of average height and graceful build , on outward appearance probably similar to Adygami ... In the scientific world, the name stuck behind them "Tribes of dolmen culture" .

We are separated by 5 thousand years, and now it is difficult to restore the smallest details life and spiritual culture of these peoples, but we still know something about them.

TO III century. BC. (i.e., by the time the tombs were built) people learned the properties of metals and learned how to smelt tools from copper and bronze... This gave them a significant advantage: for example, a copper ax turned out to be 3 times more effective than a stone one, the performance of a copper knife was 6-7 times higher than a stone one, most tangibly revealed advantage of copper when drilling (20 times faster) ... However, at this time, they continued to use stone tools.

The main occupations of the population were cattle breeding and agriculture , and with technological progress, new professions have appeared among local residents: foundry workers, blacksmiths, jewelers, gunsmiths .

Despite such imposing tombs, the dwellings of the tribes of the dolmen culture were adobe, therefore, have not survived. In general, very few settlements of that era are known, about 10, and only 5 have been investigated. Apparently, for the ancient builders it was much more important to create "Eternal" burial structure than to build a comfortable home. Why is that? What is the reason for this?

Imagine that distant time. Several scattered tribes coexist on a small territory. They were not always in a peaceful mood towards each other. Frequent clashes, wars for the right to exist and live in that territory forced to look for a way to somehow establish themselves in the land of their ancestors . The land with its rich natural resources was the most valuable, it was valued above human life . How could this or that people prove that this is the land of their ancestors? Exactly funeral monuments which have become ancestral crypts and served as such proof. According to the plan of the ancient builders dolmens were supposed to claim ownership of land forever ... Society has always had a complex structure, and most likely dolmens and dolmen complexes did not belong to ordinary fellow citizens ... If these were medieval monuments, they could be called "Princely" ... But for the Bronze Age it is not yet known which term to use in this case. These are the ancestral crypts .

Perhaps separate types of dolmens corresponded to certain strata of society ( leaders, priests, elders etc.). Or maybe different structures were built different tribes ... All this is still a mystery.

All dolmens face down the slope ... But there are times when they stand at the top of the ridge, for example on grief nexis (near Gelendzhik ). And here it is not clear why they are turned in that direction and not in the other? Is it related to the rising or setting of the sun, the arrangement of the planets and stars? The orientation could be astronomical, but it could also depend on the relief. ... Both of these statements have not been proven. There is only one known case when a dolmen is oriented towards sunset, marked by a stone (obelisk) - this is a dolmen in the area of the Novosvobodnaya stanitsa. The top of the stone has been decorated concentric circles that in many cultures of antiquity symbolized the sun ... Now this obelisk is kept in Maykop Museum .

Religion of the ancient builders

Attempts to look deep into the millennia and determine the religious ideas of ancient builders lead the views of scientists to ornaments carved on dolmen slabs. Unpretentious drawings in stone lead us to the origins of religion ... Plunging into mysterious world paganism. Most often there are ornaments in the form diverging circles, repeating zigzags and triangles .

WITH funeral cult many peoples are connected various symbols ... One such symbol snake ... It was believed that she is a mysterious creature connecting this world with the otherworldly, earthly with the underground. And the serpentine plot was often repeated in the Bronze Age. A snake was depicted as a zigzag ornament in ancient times ... On one of the dolmens on Mount Nexis zigzags topped with small snake heads ... When we explored the dolmens near the village Novosvobodnoy, we found that two of them had the ornament on the walls inside the chamber painted red ocher even before the assembly of the entire structure. It can be assumed, that a dolmen building, tightly closed with a stone plug, was a repository of deceased ancestors who could affect future prosperity and fertility... These are not just funerary monuments, they are also cult monuments. Why? For the same reason that we are now visit cemeteries - commemoration of relatives, cult of ancestors . The dead have always been respected and feared, they believed that they could mystically interfere in the affairs of the living, therefore they performed this cult.

Dolmen of the river valley Janet.

During the archaeological survey of the valley Janet River an amazing find was made - block-altar (altar), which is currently kept in the Gelendzhik Museum of History and Local Lore ... Apparently, he was standing in the upper row of walls fencing off the dolmen courtyard (he has groove ). Maybe it was right next to the dolmen. Its exact location has not yet been determined. This altar is unique. He once again makes us understand that in those distant times here, in front of the dolmens, they performed some complex, unknown rituals. What spells have the gloomy tombs heard, whose blood sprinkled the stone altars, What gods did the exalted priests offer prayers to? ? The ancient tombs will never reveal this secret. We also don’t know who accompanied the departed on their last journey. It is only known for certain that the roof of the dolmen never moved during the funeral procession ... It has always been covered by an embankment. The deceased was brought into the chamber through a hole in the front slab , which then, after completing the accompanying rituals and funeral feast, was tightly closed stopper .

Dolmen of the river valley Pshada.

What do archaeologists find in dolmens?

Dolmen of the river valley Pshada.

Unfortunately, many of these monuments were plundered in antiquity. But some scientists were lucky, and they had a chance to pull plug dolmen were the first, after the last man put it in its place thousands of years ago, having buried relatives. And the remains of these people (how they lie, what things are next to them) prove that this crypt ... Sometimes there are several buried there (more often 2-3 people, sometimes, as in the dolmens of Abkhazia up to 15). There are 2 types of burials:

— twisted when the skeleton lies on its side with knees tucked towards the chest;

— plastic bag (pouch) with bones, sometimes embroidered beads ... The skull, long bones, and sometimes the bones of the chest and pelvis were put in such a bag. This phenomenon is known for the Bronze Age - ritual procedures were very complex.

Often at the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. crumpled position of the buried perceived as sedentary ... Some bones are sprinkled red ocher and coal . In many ancient cultures, ocher was, as it were, a symbol of blood, life in the other world ... This means that the builders of the dolmens believed that death is just a transition to another life where a person will need things that he used in earthly life. Therefore, next to the burial - personal belongings of the deceased (weapons, decorations etc.) and parting food (usually in earthen vessels). Traditional set of weapons - bronze spear and dagger .

In confirmation that this is not only funeral monuments , but also cult , archaeologists find traces of funeral feasts that were performed on the sites in front of the dolmens - these are ceramic dishes, animal bones and knives.

It happens, at fossils at the entrance to the dolmen (molluscs, etc.) taken from the river. Rarely come across images of animals ... For example, one dolmen has about stanitsa Novosvobodnoy found 2 bronze with silver figurines dogs (one - how like , the other is similar to fox ), and in another dolmen - with an obelisk, partially damaged bull figure ... For some unknown reason, approximately in the first halfII century BC. construction of dolmens stopped ... But the buildings of the Bronze Age were not forgotten. For a long time they were used for burials and feasts by tribes of later times ( Meots, Circassians ).

Modern archaeological research

For the last few years, two expeditions have been working in the area of Gelendzhik. One of them led by Candidate of Historical Sciences B.V. Meleshko , - has been excavating for three seasons in a row dolmens Nazarova gap near resort village Arkhipo-Osipovka ... This expedition works within the framework of Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS, Moscow) ... And its purpose is not only to excavate a certain monument, but also search and mapping of new dolmen locations ... Now on Caucasus about 3 thousand dolmens are known. But their true number should be about 3 times more (i.e. about 10 thousand).

The second expedition runs from Institute for the History of Material Culture (RAS, St. Petersburg) v the valley of the Janet river ... Leads it Candidate of Historical Sciences V.A. Trifonov ... The work of the expedition is carried out with 1997 of the year. Together with archaeologists from St. Petersburg and Moscow, experts from the USA, Italy, Australia, Denmark took part in it, so it may well be called The international ... As a result of the implementation of the planned work, it is assumed return the complex of the Janet River valley to a view as close as possible to the original, including dolmens, barrow structures and between. barrow space... And create natural and archaeological reserve , and within it - archaeological park ... A similar technique is known in the West as reconstructive ... In our country, such work is being carried out for the first time. Also in 2001 year Presidential Fund , who allocated funds for the continuation of research, directly named this project of national importance .

Dolmen of the river valley Pshada.

Due to the elements of similarity between dolmens and well-known megaliths Europe and Asia, Caucasian monuments remain in the center of attention of world prehistoric archeology. But so far, as a result of research, scientists have more questions than answers. Between us and Bronze Age tombs thousands of years of history have passed. The likelihood of ever fully unraveling the secret of the dolmens- is negligible, but for those who were bewitched by the harsh beauty of these historical monuments and the amazing atmosphere of the surrounding landscape, it no longer matters.

Interesting structures in the Caucasus are dolmens. They are found on almost every continent with the exception of Australia. So in France there are about 4500 of them. And in Madagascar, for example, dolmens are very similar to the Caucasian ones, they were built back in the 19th century, but no one would ever think to seriously talk about any historical connection between them.

The slabs from which the dolmens are built contain quartz, which carries the energy of the dolmen. Each dolmen has a round hole with a diameter of about 40 cm, which, almost always, goes towards the water (stream, river, sea).

The Sochi scientist V. Kondryakov put the scheme of the location of the dolmens on the geological map of the area, and it turned out that all the dolmens are located on the fault line of the earth's crust. Such zones are sometimes called "places of power".
To solve the problem of the origin of dolmens in the Caucasus, archaeologists have to answer a more important question: how did this grandiose culture, which left us in the legacy of thousands of dolmens in the vast territory of the Western Caucasus, disappear and why, almost 1500 years later?

TYPES OF DOLMEN

By Black Sea coast and in the mountains of the Western Caucasus there are unique ancient structures - dolmens. Outwardly, they look like stone houses or birdhouses, where each wall can weigh tens of tons.
During the time of global warming on Earth (11 - 8 millennia ago), favorable conditions for human life and development were created.

At the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age, in many parts of the world appear megalithic structures(from Greek "mega" - huge, "lithos" - stone). These are the pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge in England, rows of stone pillars-menhirs in the west of France. All of them were built of huge stones almost at the same time (4-2 millennium BC). In the same era, dolmens appeared in the Western Caucasus and, despite the severe destruction, they are the best of the structures of this type, not only in Russia, but throughout the world. Presumably in the area of Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk, Shapsugskaya there were more than 1,500 dolmens, but now the number of intact and not much destroyed is more than 150. And mainly the largest dolmens are destroyed. In total, there were more than 7 thousand of them in the Western Caucasus.

a) Usually a tiled dolmen consists of 4 walls, a cover and a floor, consisting of one large or several smaller (heel) slabs. The chamber is rectangular or trapezoidal. The side plates have grooves that accommodate perfectly matched back and front plates. The front plate, framed by the projections of the side plates and the overhanging canopy, forms a portal. Since dolmens were usually located under burial mounds, the same projections protected the sliding of the mound onto the front slab of the dolmen. Sometimes an additional portal or dromos corridors were attached to the dolmen.
b) Composite dolmens are rather rare structures and have big variety options. Such dolmens were built from separate blocks. Camera shape in plan: rectangular, trapezoidal, horseshoe-shaped, round and multifaceted.
c) Trough-shaped dolmens are common. In a rock or a huge block of stone, a depression was cut out, similar to a deep trough, then covered with a slab from above or tipped upside down. A hole and portal protrusions were made.
d) Dolmens-monoliths are entirely hewn out of one block of stone or in a rock. They are very rare.
The holes of the dolmens were closed with stone plugs - phallic bushings weighing up to 150 kg.

ORIGIN OF THE DOLMEN

Translated from the Lower Breton language (in French Britain), dolmen means "stone table". They are divided into four types: tiled, composite, trough-shaped and monoliths.
The question of the origin of dolmens in the Caucasus is not simple enough. So far, no such monuments have been found anywhere in the world that would be constructively close and at the same time preceded the Caucasian ones.
Early dolmens in the Western Caucasus appear on a large territory, have a perfect shape and certain proportional mathematical relationships of the inner chamber of the dolmen.
Plates weighing from 3 to 30 tons are connected by grooves with millimeter precision. For the construction of dolmens, certain sandstone rocks are selected and sometimes moved tens of kilometers. Moreover, traces of the roads along which the stones could have been transported are not found.

On the early dolmens, there are similar thematic drawings, possibly of technical or philosophical significance. Some dolmens are decorated with vertical and horizontal zigzag lines and triangles.
Traces of the presence of a primitive man who made early single burials inside dolmens are also poorly traced. It turns out, leaving behind the most mysterious monuments that have passed through millennia - these people left behind no houses, nothing more significant ... Some scientists believe that the dolmens were built by wild, illiterate people who were afraid of the forces of nature. But is it possible now to repeat the feat of the ancient builders?
It also seems unusual that in the early stages of the appearance of dolmens in the Western Caucasus, the evolution of development is not traced - from more primitive forms and technologies to sophisticated ones, but perfect complex structures appear immediately.
In the later period of construction, slab dolmens lose their clear proportions, false portal, trough-shaped dolmens appear, composite ones are built - with false vaults and monolith dolmens are carved in the rocks, which is more reminiscent of a monument erected in honor of a slab dolmen.
Subsequently, the construction of dolmens ceases, and many of them are already used for secondary burials and as a kind of bone storage. (Mospagebreak)

DRAWINGS ON THE WALLS OF THE DOLMEN

Drawings on the walls of dolmens, left by their builders, have come down to us. Horizontal rows of herringbone notches are often visible on the front slab of tiled dolmens.
There is a pattern on dolmens made in the form of zigzags in several rows. Some archaeologists see water in these drawings. Markovin writes "... zigzags could symbolically depict water. Since ancient times, moisture has been depicted throughout the East in such a graphically laconic way, and even snakes, as" the personification of the underworld. " peculiar good wishes for the return of the souls of the dead. Water, being an invariable giver of life and fertility, was also an all-purifying means. "
Other archaeologists see in dolmen patterns " topographic map terrain ", where the waves indicate the river valleys.
On the front slab of some dolmens, there is a table-like portal. As if a dolmen was drawn on a dolmen - a "stone table", on which four convex hemispheres were sometimes depicted. There is also a convex framing of the dolmen hole.

WHERE ARE THE DOLMENS LOCATED?

Dolmens of the Caucasus are located from the Taman Peninsula to the Colchis Lowland at a distance of 480 km - in length and from 30 to 75 km - in width. Dolmens usually stand in groups and occupy comfortable and fairly flat areas along the watersheds, on the flat tops of the mountain spurs. They stand along the river basins, facing a portal into an open space - mainly to the south, east, or in an intermediate direction - between south and east.

WHEN DOLMENS BUILT?

The dating of an archaeological site can be done in several ways. One of them is to analyze the evolutionary development of manufacturing techniques, forms of ancient products, and many other features. For example: the study of the "cultural layer" in the earth. When people live in one place for a long time, a layer of earth is formed, mixed with fragments of ceramics, discarded or lost tools of labor, weapons, remnants of dwellings, animal bones, etc. Some peoples replaced others and the layers increased, sometimes reaching several meters. It is quite natural that something is deeper - something older.
Another way is radiocarbon analysis. Extracting organic remains of that time, for example - coals, bones, they measure the content of the isotope of radioactive carbon C14. Thus, archaeologists came to the conclusion that the West Caucasian dolmens were built from 3500 BC. to 1400 BC, i.e. dolmens from 5500 to 3400 years old. (mospagebreak)

Burials Inside the Dolmens

During excavations inside the dolmens, archaeologists find the burials of ancient people of the Bronze Age, already known to them from the ground burial grounds. The skeleton is in the so-called "twisted position" by archaeologists, when all the bones of a person are unnaturally close to each other. This pose is also called the pose of the embryo or embryo. This could have an important meaning for ancient people, who probably believed that from what position a person is born, in the same position he should leave this world.
Next to the deceased, they find his things, stone and the first bronze tools of labor, dishes made of gray clay.
Since then and up to our time, many peoples have lived in the Western Caucasus. Many of them, not building dolmens, made burials of their ancestors, right up to the late Middle Ages. These were different tribes of the Caucasus, nomads, as well as Scythians and Greeks.
In the vicinity of Khosta, in the village of Kudepsta, in addition to cave sites, dolmens and sacrificial sites were also discovered.
In addition to the tombs themselves, the dolmen culture includes rock fragments found near the dolmens with pits, circles and other images of cult significance carved on them.
A special place is occupied by the Kudepstinian "sacrificial" stone, known among the local population as the "Circassian" stone. It is a block of sandstone, in plan it has the shape of a triangle, each side of which is about 5 m long. In its northeastern edge, two recesses in the form of seats are carved. Behind the seats, on the upper plane of the stone, two parallel trough-shaped depressions were made, up to 2 m long and up to 1 m wide.There are also four pits, a bowl-shaped depression up to 0.2 m in diameter.Next to the first block lies another of the same size. Cup-shaped depressions are also visible on its surface. In front of the boulders, the remains of a stone foundation were found from a building, which, judging by the nature of the fragments of ceramic products, belongs to the early Middle Ages. The mutual position of the blocks and the foundation suggests that at this time the blocks no longer played any role in the life of the local population. The nature of stone processing, individual design details and the fact that the complex of blocks is independent of the foundation make it possible to attribute this monument not to the 16th - 17th centuries, as it was believed until now, but to the dolmen time (3-4 thousand years BC), when these the stones undoubtedly played the role of a sanctuary.

LEGENDS ABOUT DOLMEN

The Adygs mountain peoples who lived in the Western Caucasus, or as they were called before - the Circassians, considered dolmens to be sacred structures, revered and guarded them. The Cossacks who arrived here in the last century called the dolmens "heroic hut", "didova" or "devil's hut". The highlanders called them houses of dwarfs ("ispun").
The Europeans who arrived in the Western Caucasus recorded many legends in which they told how giants built houses for dwarfs.
"A long time ago, at the time that one almighty Allah knows and remembers, in this rich land, then covered with impenetrable forests, there lived only two tribes of people. A tribe of large, like an oak, terrible-looking giants and a tribe of small dwarfs. Giants lived in the river valleys and hunted, and the dwarfs lived high in the mountains, near the snow - in dark, cold caves and practiced witchcraft.The dwarfs rode around on harnessed hares.The giants, although they possessed terrible strength, were still stupid, like a herd of rams, when the dwarfs, having no strength at all, were very cunning.Two tribes lived for a long time, not seeing and not knowing each other. fun uprooted trees with roots. Little dwarfs by cunning and witchcraft soon managed to conquer the stupid giants and made them serve themselves. The dwarfs ordered the giants to build them comfortable little dwellings. The giants quickly got down to business and everywhere in the mountains and in the valleys, stone huts were built for the dwarfs with small round holes through which only dwarfs could get in. Many years have passed since that time, there are no dwarfs either, and their strong stone huts still stand today. "